SO DIZZY IN DIZZY TOWN!
Whizzers! Now barreling into DizzyTown all (allegedly) hopped up on booze and totin’ a .38: State Rep. Curry Todd! You, sir, make us Dizzy for apparently breaking the (dubious) law you championed!
Nashville police arrested and jailed an allegedly drunk (“almost falling down at times,” an affidavit reports) Todd on Oct. 11 when his GMC Envoy was tracked doing 60 mph in a 40 mph zone, reports the Nashville Scene.
Todd, the Collierville Republican behind the state’s guns-in-bars law, was also charged with possession of a handgun while under the influence but refused a Breathalyzer.
As one wag on the Tennessee Firearms Association website put it, “Thanks Curry for the bad publicity.”
Todd resigned his post as chairman of the special House firearms task force following his arrest and this week resigned his position of chairman of the powerful House Committee on State and Local Government.
State Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey told reporters it would be up to Todd’s constituents—many of whom, we assume, count themselves as law-abidin’ citizens who like to carry guns in bars—whether he should remain in office.
OCCUPYING FORCES
• Chattanooga’s 99 percenters assembled Oct. 14 in Miller Park and Oct. 15 in Coolidge Park after a barrage of battle cries and ALL CAPS calls-to-arms followed by exhaustive exclamation points—“Say Hell No!” y’all—on the group’s Facebook page, which numbers more than 1,200 “likes” and posted a lengthy Declaration of Demands in support of the worldwide movement. We “like” you, too, OC—DizzyTown is all about the Working Class! Oh, and that demand for the decriminlization of marijuana? Nice touch.
PAY ATTENTION!
• While our job-killing, reelection-obssessed failure of a president is busy ignoring the economy in his pimped-out campaign bus, Local Hero of the Common Man, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, is calling Obama out! Our intrepid Congressman scolded Obama recently in a Nooga.com report—under the headline, “In midst of fundraising efforts, Fleischmann tells Obama ‘pay attention and quit campaigning.’”
You tell ‘em, Chuck!
Speaking of paying, Fleischmann’s own reelection campaign will be ramping up behind the scheduled Oct. 27 visit of House Speaker John Boehner, who’s winging into town to help increase Chuck’s $352,000-warchest during a private event at the members-only Walden Club. For a mere $10,000, invited guests—we’re guessing no 99-percenters—can cozy up to Fleischmann and Boehner.
UP IN THE AIR
• Ha! We’re in the wrong business (we sort of suspected this all along)! Instead of penning pithy projectiles in print, we should have started our own consulting firm and named it Big Communications, because that’s where the Big Bucks are!
Alas, a Birmingham firm of the same name already exists and is milking Lovell Field (aka Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport—does anyone call it that? No. We think not.) for the Big Bucks by dropping such high-dollar ideas as “drop the Metropolitan” (ca-ching!) and use this slogan: “Get on board!” (ca-ching!).
“Meanwhile,” a recent TFP story reports, another consultant (the airport can afford more than one? Boy, do we need to get on this gravy train!) suggested the airport add nonstop service to New York City. “You’re ripe for New York service,” Michael Lum of Sixel Consulting told the airport. Really? Even though (now departing at Gate 6) CMA president Mike Landguth said the city lost its last CHA-NY connection because the community didn’t “get on board.”
Oops! Better take the Big Money and run before we wind up with CHA-CHA-CHA-CHING: The Airport.
CHATTARATI NOT SO CHATTY LATELY
• Its calendar remains, ticking away events on a daily basis, seemingly on autopilot. But actual posts to the three-year-old community news website have been at a standstill since mid September.
Whither Chattarati.com? It would be a shame, but not surprising, for the site to dwindle. The site still boasts more than 30 contributors, so it’s odd not ot have heard a peep in the past 30 days. Its Facebook page, which lists 1,447 fans, has also been silent since Sept. 20.
Chattanooga has a fairly vibrant collection of news websites for a city its size, but Chattaratti has always struck us as one of the best. Its volunteer writers and bloggers cover events and news with a particular elan and made relevant, thought-provoking points on pivotal neighborhood, city and regional issues. So what’s up?
“Things have certainly been a bit slower than we’d like,” said editor John Hawbaker in response to our email query. “Our volume goes up and down sometimes since we all have regular jobs, but we’re working on a few stories and ideas for the next few weeks.”
Could competition from newer sites, such as Nooga.com, where we hear writers are paid (!), be contributing to Chattarati’s slowdown?
While Chattarati has all the earmarks of a community collective nonprofit, the site does accept advertising—which simply appears to have never materialized. If you climb aboard the news website train expecting to make a pile of money—or at least pay for the connection—you’re in for a rude awakening.
Despite these warnings, Nooga, which launched earlier this year with little advertising, is apparently in it to winnit. Founder (and Access American co-founder) Barry Large, has, we hear, deep pockets and is prepared to operate in the red for the foreseeable future. The allure of pay, however small, is a strong motivator in Chattanooga’s small but talented freelance journalism pool. Alumnus Bill Colrus, the former editor of this paper, for example, now writes for Nooga, and Technical Director Dan Ryan left to join the Obama campaign in Chicago in August.
HELP! WE CAN'T DO THIS ALONE
• As the political season begins to heat up The Pulse is seeking a skilled political writer to analyze this rich landscape with compelling insight, razor-sharp humor and an alternative spin. The successful candidate—a certified political and media junkie—will exhibit sharply honed reporting, excellent writing skills. Got the write stuff? Send three samples (500 words each on local, state and national politics) to zcooper@chattanoogapulse.com.
WHY DIZZY TOWN?
Many (OK, not that many) have asked us: “Why DizzyTown? Isn’t there a more obvious name for stream-of-consciousness column about Chattanooga politics and media?
“No,” we replied.
Got a tip for DizzyTown? Send it to: dizzy@chattanoogapulse.com